The Trouble with Research
It's no secret to anyone who's vaguely interested that I'm putting together a book that focuses on the 15th century Spanish Inquisition, the life of Tomas de Torquemada in particular.I have no illusions whatsoever that this thing'll be 100% accurate and historically factual, but not for lack of effort. The trouble with research is, who do you believe?
The controversy in a nutshell: the Spanish Inquisition is possibly the most embarrassing blemish (to put it politely) in Christianity's history, particularly for Catholicism. The secular position has been, traditionally, that this was a near-Holocaust-level action that persisted for centuries, perpetuated by the greed and wrath of the Catholic church. The Catholic position has been, traditionally, that the statistics have been exaggerated and inflated and the whole thing simply wasn't as bad as it's made out to be.
And I'm quickly getting to the point where I'm losing interest in the controversy, I just want to friggin' know what really happened.
It's gets hairier when I ask members of the Catholic church for their viewpoint on it. Predictably, it's not an area in which most Catholics (or non-Catholics for that matter) have massive amounts of expertise. But when pressed, the shields tend to go up and it's hard to get solid information from someone who feels they're entering an apologetics-style battle of truth and zeal.
My goal has always remained the same: Christianity/Catholocism needs to cop to what happened, but not to what didn't. It's a pickle, too: any refutation of a sobering statistic concerning torture or execution is seen as an insensitive refusal of reality.
In the meantime, I'll just keep reading.
posted by Jeremy Bear at
9:01 AM
9 Comments:
Heh. I used to catch the bus home in the plaza where the "heretics" were burned in Seville. (El Prado de San Sebastian; but you knew that already.) Supposedly the blood ran clear down to the river a good quarter of a mile away. Some say the blood was this deep, others, that deep, but always in terms normally reserved for flood stages. I see from Google maps that it's now a park, and no longer a parking lot, or the place where the carnival rides were set up every year. The neighbors in the house behind ours had banners in their back patio for an exhibition on the torture tools used during the inquisition. I haven't lived there for 15 years, otherwise I'd try to put you in touch there.
That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. Some of these "facts" reek of urban myth-iness, but the further we get from it temporally, the less chance we have of understanding it. A "river of blood"? Yes, it was horrible and awful and shameful. But come on.
I'd love to tour Seville, it was a huge city in terms of Inquisitional activity.
Y'all totally need to plan a trip to Spain so you can do some first-hand research. And learn to speak Spanish. That would probably help. And take the Schweitzers along to photograph and take notes for you.
Mike is taking a class on how the role media plays in constructing history, and the different ways that we remember and interact and construct with the past. It sounds like it might be an interesting topic for you two to discuss. You have his email right?
April: I'd totally dig on a family of Schweitzer research assistants. Think of it as an unpaid internship for four.
Ferguson: Man, I'd really get into that class. Our contemporary world is so distorted through what the media feeds us, it makes me cringe to think of how contorted history has become.
You know, the more I think about this, the more I think you need to understand Spanish society. In America, admitting to something and shrugging it off is no biggie, just practical politics. In Spain (well, in most latin societies, really) shame is a driving force; admitting to doing anything wrong is akin to suicide. In a shame-and-honor society, you're looking to shame the Catholic church, an undisputed master of the craft. We know the name of Martin Luther because he tried it and, after a fashion, succeeded.
Not only is it an interesting point, it's one of the central themes of what I'm trying to do (discuss the issue of "shame", that is, not shame the Catholic church).
Learning more about 15th century Spain all the time, still haven't been there, which is, hyuk hyuk, a shame. But everything I've read backs up what you're saying. Those convicted of heresy were forced to publicly wear the sanbenito, a symbol of their insolence which was more than simply embarrassing, it was life-altering and career-destroying for one's self and one's family.
I have no interest in shaming the Catholic church or, really, in those who set out to shame the Catholic church. On the other hand, there is something that's not entirely unhealthy about shame that I think our own culture has lost touch with and that interests me greatly. A shame that's temporary can potentially be used to restore and that intrigues me far more than some kind of faked-up moral superiority trip.
Ah. Now, that does sound more interesting.
You may or may not be interested in the following article: Kerr, Carolyn. 2007. “Shame in Spain.” Evangelical Missions Quarterly. 43(3):358-364.
If you can't find a copy out there, I can put you in contact with the author; the last name isn't a coincidence.
Many institutions limit access to their online information. Making this information available will be an asset to all.
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